The Influence of Age on Acute Myocardial Infarction Symptoms and Patient Delay in Seeking Treatment

A secondary analysis was conducted from data gathered from 239 patients with acute myocardial infarction presenting to the emergency departments of three hospitals to explore the influence of age on delay time, experienced symptoms, and factors predicting a delay of >1 hour. During hospitalization, a structured interview about the patients' experience before hospital admission was completed and their medical records were reviewed. The median delay before seeking treatment was not significantly different between older (2.5 hours) and younger patients (2.1 hours). Older patients were significantly less likely to report classic pain in the center of the chest and other associated symptoms such as sweating and nausea; they also used fewer words to describe their discomfort compared with younger patients. Independent predictors of longer delay were: contacted physician, lacked similarity between experienced and expected symptoms, did not use 911 (older adults), lived alone, and contacted physician (younger adults). Primary care providers need to be aware that elderly persons are more likely to have mild or ambiguous acute myocardial infarction symptoms and education is needed for elderly persons regarding not only acute myocardial infarction symptoms but also rapid, action-centered decisions to attribute symptoms to heart problems and initiate ambulance use.